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[violence] general

Iraqi women must have an active role in shaping the future of their country and Iraqi authorities must take effective measures to protect women and to change discriminatory legislation that encourages violence against them.

Stories from four women who are ethnically, educationally (culturally) and socio-economically apart and varied yet one common thread runs through their tales: these are women metamorphosing from victims to survivors to advocates of peace.

A statement issued by 115 women in Dhaka, following the assassination of Shah A M S Kibria and five members of his audience (Abul Hossain, Farid, Manjurul Huda Manju, Siddiq Ali, Abdur Rahim) in a grenade attack on a public meeting in Habiganj, Sylhet.

Women across the country commemorate February 12 as Pakistan Women's Day, in remembrance of the state's brutality against women who in 1983, protested against the Law of Evidence, which reduces the status of a woman witness to half that of a male witness.

WLUML has received an urgent appeal for solidarity and pressure to be placed on the Italian government to secure the safe release of Italian feminist-pacifist journalist Guiliana Sgrena, kidnapped in Iraq.